


A bit of honesty goes a long way

by LifeInWentworth



Category: Wentworth - Fandom
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-01
Updated: 2013-10-01
Packaged: 2017-12-28 03:13:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/986993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LifeInWentworth/pseuds/LifeInWentworth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: After Franky's dad visits she breaks down in her next tutoring session with Erica. Erica eventually gets Franky to explain how her dad treated her in the past. The next time Franky's dad shows up Erica confronts him.... so basically hurt, angry Franky and protective Erica :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A bit of honesty goes a long way

Franky took a seat next to the governor, who was already flicking through brochures and books. She smiled at the prisoner.  
“Franky,” she said, relaxed but always on guard as she knew to be with the prisoner.  
“Erica,” Franky nodded, smirk right in place as though she knew how much the governor loved that Franky was the only prisoner who dared address her by first name.  
“Hey, how did the visit go with your dad? You asked him back when you hurt your hand, so that’s a good thing, right?” Erica asked. There was a fine line between doing her job and finding out what had happened and prying, but she was pretty sure Franky wouldn’t let her in anyway.  
Franky shrugged, “I don’t want to see him again,” she simply answered and got very interested in a brochure she had pinched from Erica’s fingers. The governor watched her carefully but didn’t ask any more questions. The two talked about the courses on offer and even joked around a little bit. Sometimes it was so easy to be around Franky and Erica forgot she was a prisoner in her care, and Franky forgot she couldn’t just take Erica home and watch a movie with her. It was Franky who broke the silence.

“I wish he’d never even approached you,” she said out of nowhere.  
Erica was taken aback; she thought the subject was dealt with, “How come?” she asked cautiously.  
Franky shrugged, “He’s changed. Well he probably hasn’t, but he doesn’t look the same.”  
“It’s been a long time Franky, people do change,” Erica replied.  
“He hasn’t changed,” Franky contradicted her last statement, confusing the governor to no ends, “I mean, he looks totally different and I’m grown up now and he thinks we can just put shit in the past and be best friends.”  
Erica tried to keep eye contact with Franky but she was uncharacteristically avoiding the governor’s eyes, “You don’t have to forgive him, Franky. He can ask but you don’t – “  
“Why can he ask, though? What’s fair about that? He can’t just… Jeez, even in this place I’m not safe from all that bullshit,” Franky was becoming agitated now and Erica didn’t know if she should take that as a sign to stop the conversation or that the young woman needed to get it out of her system. Then Franky lay her head in her hands, face down on the table and sniffed. Was Franky Doyle really crying in front of her? 

“Franky?” Erica didn’t even know what to say.  
Franky wiped her eyes but the tears were never ending, she glanced around, thankfully there was only one other person at the back of the library, after all she had a reputation to protect.  
“Sorry,” she muttered, sniffing and blinking away tears.  
“Don’t be,” Erica knew she shouldn’t ask, but she’d never seen Franky like this and it intrigued her, “What…what happened with your parents? Why don’t you want your dad in your life?”  
“He’s an asshole,” Franky replied, simply.  
Erica smiled, “Well, I gathered that much… Did he hurt you?”  
“No… not physically. But he left me to her, didn’t he?”  
“Your mum?” Erica asked.  
Franky nodded, “Yeah…” she seemed to zone out to another world for a moment before pulling herself back, her eyes were red and she wanted to shut up, but then she’d look up at Erica and want to tell her everything, “She hurt me. She told me it was my fault he left, like I was just worthless and pathetic, why would he ever want me? She…she hit me, I was just a little kid,” Franky shrugged.  
Erica watched Franky intensely, she could feel her heart pounding in her chest, “And your dad, he never came back?”  
Franky laughed bitterly, “I guess I was pathetic…I waited for years, I’d wait at my window and I really thought tonight will be the night. He’ll come back for me. Before that, I was daddy’s little girl,” she laughed again, “but no, he never came back. She caught me at the window most nights…”  
Erica didn’t want to know the answer, “Then what happened? When she caught you?”  
Franky swallowed hard, “She’d just yell at me, tell me it was my fault he was left and he wasn’t coming back. She was drunk…or high, always drunk or high. Sometimes she’d hit me, sometimes she’d just yell and then…” she trailed off.  
“Then what, Franky?” Erica resisted the urge to take the prisoner’s hand in hers, she just wanted to hold her, to tell it was okay, but all these boundaries…especially with Franky, of all people.  
“She burnt me with cigarettes,” Franky’s eyes blurred with tears again at the memory of the pain, “I just...he knew she was doing that, before he even left. Knew what she was like, how could he leave a fucking nine year old with that bitch?” Franky shrugged, “I just don’t get it.”  
Erica realised her jaw was clenched, “Neither do I.”  
“I think the burns were the worst,” Franky almost whispered, “I can still…feel it, smell it. I’d cry and yell, it hurt so much, but she’d do it in places nobody could see. She just wanted to hurt me…to scar me for life, and I don’t even know why. She just…hated me,” Franky finished, looking up at the governor, “Don’t look at me like that.”  
Erica looked away, “Like what?”  
“With all that…fucking pity in your eyes,” Franky shook her head.  
“I’m sorry, Franky. I just…I hate that you went through that and I hate that it still haunts you. Maybe I should have just told your dad to piss off.”  
Franky smiled sadly, “It was my decision to see him, Erica. Don’t worry about it. Plus I’m not seeing him again, so,” she shrugged, “I can move on, right?”  
Erica nodded, “Yeah, you can. Franky, you did nothing wrong. You were just a child left in a bad situation, you know that, right?”  
Franky sniffed, “Sometimes I do.”

Three days later, Will knocked on the governor’s door.  
“What is it? Is it important?” Erica had a report due that afternoon so it had better be important or she was going to crack someone’s head open.  
“It’s Alan Doyle. He’s down in reception, I know he’s not meant to be left through but he’s asked for you specifically. Says you know each other,” Will replied.  
Erica sighed, seriously? Knew each other? They met once. And Erica was not who that asshole wanted to piss off right now. She stood up and walked out of her office.

“Alan,” Erica said curtly, “I think you should leave,” the governor didn’t have time to waste and she really couldn’t be bothered with this idiot.  
“I want to see my daughter,” Alan said roughly.  
“Well, she doesn’t want to see you and you know that. Just leave it, Alan and leave Wentworth, and while you’re at it, never come back.”  
The hurt look in Alan’s eye reminded Erica of Franky, and that only pissed her off more, “Now,” she raised her voice, pointing to the door.  
“I have a right to see her, she’s my daughter,” Alan replied, getting annoyed himself now.  
Erica breathed in deep and took a step closer to Franky’s father, “Yeah and was she your daughter when she was nine years old and you left her to fend for herself?” she said harshly.  
Alan was taken a back at the details the governor knew, “Look, I don’t know what she’s told you but we can work through this – “  
“She doesn’t want to work through it. That’s her decision, she has the right to refuse any visitor, she doesn’t even need a reason,” Erica paused, “but with you she has a thousand.”  
“Don’t I have a right –“  
“I think you lost all your rights when you walked out on your daughter. Do you know what your wife used to do to her?”  
Alan turned away, but Erica pulled his arm, forcing him to face her, “Do you? She used to hit her, yell at her that you left because of her. Poison her head making her hate herself, making her think that your screwed up marriage was her fault. She used to burn her with cigarettes. As a nine year old, she was just a fucking child. You were her father, you were meant to protect her. She has every right to hate you and as long as I’m governor here, and long after that, you will never be allowed anywhere near her,” she let go of his arm roughly, and called security to escort him out.  
She took a deep breath in and out, looking around the visiting room; nobody seemed to notice her slightly aggressive interaction with Franky’s father…oh shit, except Kim, who was staring directly at her.

The next day, Erica was sitting in the library as Franky came and sat by her.  
“I heard you saw my dad yesterday,” Franky stated.  
Erica sighed, “I was hoping you wouldn’t hear about that. He won’t be coming back, Franky.”  
Franky nodded, “Yeah…you made sure of that, apparently. Kim says you got pretty…angry.”  
“I wasn’t angry, I was…,” Erica tried to come up with something, “Well, I may have got slightly annoyed. Look, Franky he won’t be back, okay? I made sure of that.”  
Franky bit her lip, “Wish I could have seen you in action,” she smirked.  
Erica rolled her eyes in response.  
“Why’d you do it?” Franky asked suddenly, “couldn’t you have just got security to take him away?”  
“I suppose, but…I guess I wanted to give him a piece of my mind,” Erica surprised both of them with her honesty.  
Franky nodded, studying Erica’s face, “I like it when you’re protective,” now Franky surprised both of them with her honesty.  
Erica shook her head, smiling, “I’m protective of all the women.”  
Franky bit her lip, “I hope not,” she said softly, giving Erica that look.  
“Franky,” Erica said in her usual tone but sighed, “Let’s just study.”


End file.
